Legislation, Advocacy, & Political Action

If you’re interested in advocating for important CCA legislation, please Contact the LAC Chair

The fight for part-time parity continues! Support our co-sponsored legislation, AB 260 (Santiago), by contacting your local legislators and members of the Asm Appropriations Committee, where the bill will be heard on May 3.

Our Call to Action encourages members to send in their Letters of Support for AB260 (Santiago)

Learn about CCA Bill Positions

Info on Legislation

California State Legislature Bill Search
Learn about the Lifecycle of Legislation in CA
An important reminder about the California State Legislature website:
At this Legislature link, you will find a variety of crucial information about your state legislators and the legislative process, including:

  • A lookup to find your legislator (both Assembly and Senate)
  • Information on current bills
  • Budget information
  • Committee membership and scheduled hearings
  • Leadership and caucuses

What To Know About CCA and Legislation

Learn about the State Council processing of legislation happens with this Roadmap

Processing CCA Legislation

Members are often interested in the processing of CCA legislation. Ideas for legislation come from CCA members, either individually or through committees. Those ideas are then discussed by the CCA Legislation and Advocacy Committee.  If the Legislation and Advocacy Committee supports an idea, it then goes to the CCA Policy Committee to make sure there is CTA policy that supports the proposed legislation. Then in June or October, the proposed bills, with their rationales, are presented to the CTA State Legislation Committee on behalf of CCA by the CCA Vice President and the CTA legislative advocate assigned to CCA.  These ideas are then sent to various departments of CTA for evaluation. If the bill is passed by CTA State Council, our Legislative Advocate then finds an author to carry the bill and lobbies for the bill as it makes its way through the state legislature.

Taking Positions on Legislation

CCA is a policy-driven organization. Therefore, positions on legislation must be supported by policy. (If policy does not exist, CCA is able to write policy in support — provided that it does not contradict existing policy.) For this reason, it is not always possible for a CCA officer or Board member to declare support for a particular bill or concept without going through existing policy. The CCA President is the official spokesperson for our organization.

The CCA Legislation and Advocacy Committee reviews all bills that refer to community colleges or higher education. It is our task to take positions on these bills, which are then approved by both CTA State Council and CCA Council. Once these positions are taken, the CTA Legislative Advocate assigned to CCA lobbies for our positions in the legislature.

Legislation and Advocacy Committee

The Legislation and Advocacy Committee is where CCA discusses all
legislation that affects higher education.

Previous Updates…

These are critical times for teachers’ unions across the nation. Here are some important resources for understanding issues directly affecting CCA members:

  • CalSTRS is NOT in Crisis!!! Do not begrudge me the pension I earned – Dana Dillon’s excellent piece makes a compelling case

NEA Sponsors EducationVotes.org

EducationVotes.nea.org is creating a nationwide call to action, organizing and mobilizing teachers across America. Let your voice be heard for educators and workers’ rights. This call-to-action organization believes that educators, school support staff, nurses, firefighters and other middle class workers are essential to the well-being and safety of our families and communities. Working Americans need to use the strength of our numbers to fight for better wages and benefits, job security and safer workplaces. We need balance that brings our leaders together to create quality jobs and solves the problems hurting middle class families across the country.

CCA Helps Launch Degrees not Debt in California

Did you know…

  • The average student owes $35,000, but some owe ten times as much.
  • Existing student debt now exceeds $1.2 trillion.Forty million people in the U.S. have student debt.
  • Student debt is higher than credit card debt in this country.More than 40 percent of 25-year-olds hold student debt.

As college costs skyrocket and federal student aid lags, too many students are forced to borrow staggering amounts of money to pay for higher education. The growing student debt crisis has prompted CTA and the National Education Association to launch a national campaign, Degrees Not Debt, aimed at reducing student loan debt through loan forgiveness programs, lower-repayment plans and reinvesting in higher education. Students aren’t the only ones affected by this crisis, as Cypress College English Professor Linda Borla reports.

Passed Legislation

CCA’s Part-time Faculty Job Security Bill Signed into Law

With the stroke of a pen, Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB 1379 by state Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Cerritos) and AB 1690 into law on Sept. 30, 2016. SB 1379 is the amended version of CCA’s job security legislation for part-time faculty and creates minimum standards for part-time faculty within the California Community College system. The original bill, AB 1690, was authored by Assembly member Jose Medina, (D-Riverside).

“This was legislation our members wanted, we sponsored and worked hard to pass,” said Past CCA Vice President Bradley Reynolds. “Part-time job security is a cost-effective way for community colleges to keep the same part-time faculty semester after semester. Student success relies on a stable faculty and this legislation helps to ensure that.”

In a joint news release, Mendoza and Medina said that part-time faculty throughout the state are plagued by inconsistent employment practices across community college districts and an inability to negotiate fair reemployment rights. Together, AB 1690 and SB 1379 provide landmark provisions to improve workplace stability for part-time faculty at California Community Colleges. Under the new law, representatives for both faculty and the community college district must discuss and set standards for employment practices for that particular district, thus providing much-needed employment stability for faculty while allowing districts the flexibility to accommodate local needs.

Despite a requirement by AB 1725 passed in 1988 that 75 percent of community college classes be taught by full-time faculty, part-time faculty now far outnumber their full-time colleagues in the California community system. Yet the working conditions of adjunct faculty still lag behind on many campuses. Part-time faculty often have no guarantees that they will be teaching from term to term due to program changes, budget cuts, class enrollment and funding. Many times, part time faculty have shown up on the first day of classes only to discover a note on the door telling them their classes have been cut. This lack of security and respect has an impact on faculty and students at a time when student success has become more important than ever.

CCA/CTA’s co-sponsored legislation aims to change that by creating minimum standards for part-time faculty to be achieved through collective bargaining. By implementing minimum standards for evaluation procedures, workload distribution and seniority rights, part-time faculty can be ensured their students have access to continued quality instruction.